“Lest We Forget” was originally compiled and released by Aaron Elliot of the acclaimed fanzine Cometbus (and drummer for Crimpshrine and Pinhead Gunpowder) in 1991 to document the Berkeley punk scene of the 80’s. I don’t want to be accused of wild exaggeration by saying the music here is exactly essential (although there’s some great stuff here) but it is absolutely essential to appreciate the why, who, and how of what was being created at the time. Their output has had a significant impact on today’s music. You can connect the influential dots from this tape to Maximum Rock’n’Roll to Operation Ivy to Green Day to whatever indie/punk act you’re listening to right now.

Close to 90 minutes of music are presented here as two rather large MP3 files. Instead of splitting each band’s track(s) for individual download, this approach is an effort to preserve the original intent of compilation tape curators – listen to side one in its entirety, flip it, hit play and listen to all of side two. Also, it would have been an incredible amount of work to make separate files for each song and I’m incredibly lazy. Complete liner notes are included too. Enjoy.